If anyone is targeting Sasikala or the AIADMK, then they should be looking elsewhere, not at Deepa for leading a revolt successfully, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dinakaran recalled the difficulties faced by party workers in carrying forward their organisational work without a name.
In a week from now, December 21, voters in R K Nagar in Chennai will decide who their MLA will be.
Stalin, whose party has a strength of 89 members in the 234-member house, claimed his efforts were not aimed at taking DMK to power nor was there any intention of enjoying posts.
The campaign has gathered steam for the June 27 bypoll contest in Tamil Nadu featuring Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam workers are going all out to ensure her victory against the lone Communist Party of India challenger.
Contest on their own and get washed out, as happened in the 2016 assembly elections? Or contest in league with one of the Dravidian majors and get submerged under its election symbol? With elections looming, minor political parties in Tamil Nadu are caught in this dilemma, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP has nothing to lose after a point. For the DMK it is a difficult choice, as it would not want to give too much of space to a 'national party' lest the 'Dravidian duel' of the past decades should be lost forever, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
CM Stalin has a procedural problem. Nominating new ministers would entail his having to seek formal permission from governor R N Ravi. Stalin does not want to interact with the person of this governor, as far as possible, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Though another 75 candidates are in the fray, the Elangovan-Thennaruasu fight has become a prestige battle for the DMK and AIADMK, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
After days of uncertainty and dragging, the seat-sharing issue between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and left parties for the April 13 Tamil Nadu assembly polls was finally sealed on Monday with the Jayalalithaa-led party allotting 22 seats to Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India.
The campaign will reach a high decibel level next week when BJP state chief K Annamalai is expected to take up a blitzkrieg campaign against the ruling DMK.
Seen by political watchers as the favourite to retain power for a third straight term, the Bharatiya Janata Party has set itself an ambitious target of winning 370 Lok Sabha seats, a goal aimed as much at projecting its strength as at diminishing the opposition in popular imagination.
The AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu doesn't really want to antagonize Karnataka in any way that could have any sort of bearing on the case against party chief Jayalalithaa. However, it is under pressure back home over backing a farmers' bandh call against check dams being proposed by the neighbouring state.
The deaths of Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi within months of each other neutralises any sympathy factor their parties may hope to gain from. What's more, by removing charismatic leaders from the fray, it also levels the field for others, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa Monday announced five of her party nominees for the June 27 biennial election to the six Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu, giving V Maithreyan a successive term.
A Ganesh Nadar captures the mood and scenes from outside the hall in Vaanagaram where Sasikala was appointed as the new party chief.
OPS also requested the EC to restarin Sisikala's pick Dindigul C Sreenivasan from functioning as the party treasurer
Stalin, moving the resolution, said without giving any reasons, Ravi had returned the Bills, mentioning "I withhold Assent" to them.
Neither the ruling DMK nor the fractured AIADMK Opposition anticipated that an assembly by-election would put them both to test, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday said it has arrested Jaffer Sadiq, a Tamil Nadu-based alleged dealer of narcotics, in connection with an international drugs trafficking investigation case.
A poster put out by an expelled AIADMK party man in Chennai threatening Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu if convicted party chief Jayalalithaa was not released from jail has created a flutter amidst the common populace.
Already, there is a feeling even within the BJP's AIADMK ally that the BJP is overdoing things on the ED/I-T front, as corruption is not an election issue in the state -- as long as the people are otherwise not excessively unhappy with the governing party, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP is ready for a snap poll anytime and is sure the UPA will not remain in office till 2009 in view of widening differences with the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear.
The BJP promised revival of the legislative council in Tamil Nadu, which was abolished decades ago by its ally, the ruling AIADMK, if their combine was voted to power in the coming assembly elections.
The House had to be adjourned twice in the afternoon amid din over the issue and finally for the day, minutes after it reassembled at 3 pm.
Emerging from a "consultative" meeting chaired by Chief Minister E K Palaniswami, Finance Minister D Jayakumar declared that the "unanimous" decision was taken in tune with the aspirations of the party cadres and people.
The actor said the "clown's cap" was now being foisted on the head of Tamils and urged them to "erupt".
Leaders of several opposition parties on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme and termed it an important step in ensuring transparency in electoral funding.
After observing ritualistic stipulations for days, a massive "milk pot" procession was taken out in Madurai by AIADMK workers and supporters in which a sizable number of women cadres participated.
Whenever they are announced, the bypolls to 20 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu will be a mini referendum on the state government's performance. It will also be a do-or-die battle for the ruling AIADMK, opposition DMK, as well as the rebel AMMK, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The AIADMK is convinced that the BJP will remain an electoral burden for a long time to come, beginning the Lok Sabha polls next year, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
The continuing exodus has left the party short of leaders, especially those credited with "excellent" organisational skills. The local strongmen, who switched sides, are reaping rich rewards in DMK.
While the crowds outside the AIADMK HQ seem to have taken victory for granted, a small crowd out the DMK HQ refuses to concede. A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com reports from Chennai.
Nineteen political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, received over Rs 1,100 crore during assembly polls in five states and Union territories in 2021 and spent over Rs 500 crore, a big chunk of which went towards advertisements and travel expenses for star campaigners, a study said on Friday.
In what can be called as a major hint towards sewing up an unprecedented merger between two warring factions, the Sasikala and the O Panneerselvam groups of the All Anna India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam met on late Monday night in Chennai.
'The others have been looting the people all these years. If you don't do that, you can do a lot for the people,' says Tamil star politician Vijayakanth.
Senior Congress leader to support AIADMK
AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa constituted a six-member committee on Monday to hold seat-sharing discussions with alliance parties for assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala.
'Did you not see it on TV?' 'He blessed Sasikala and comforted OPS.'
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